The successes of New Forest ponies are well documented. Winning at HOYS. Badminton Grass Roots, affiliated dressage, British eventing and show jumping not to mention the hundreds of wonderful family ponies that turn their hoof to anything and everything. However, two of the Hollybrooke Stud’s brood mares Hollybrooke Romany and Hollybrooke Gingernut who are just ordinary forest ponies, did something that was both astounding and remarkable.
In an effort to curb their expanding waistlines, it is our policy to turn out some of our broodmare onto the Forest in the summer when they do not have a foal. In early March this year despite all the rain, the mild weather was encouraging the grass to grow. Romany was already fatter than we would like so we decided that we would turn her out on the Forest. We live right at the edge of the New Forest but consider the road outside our farm too dangerous to turn the ponies out here. We always take them in the lorry or trailer to somewhere safer and quieter. No pony has ever been turned out from home.
We took her to Burley Lawn which is not near busy roads and three miles from home. Two weeks later Gingernut her older sister’s waistline was also expanding. She was born at Burley Lawn and had previously found her way home, so we took her to Black Knoll which is   the other side of Brockenhurst and much further away and where she ran quite happily last summer. We let her go late on Sunday afternoon and left her with a group of other ponies.
Early on Thursday morning just three and a half days later I came out of the back door to find Romany calmly grazing on the lawn. To say I couldn't believe my eyes would be an understatement. If she had come back from Burley Lawn then there were two cattle grids to cross one on the road and one at the top of our drive in order to actually get to the lawn. Our forest boundary is all double post and railed fenced and in good order. So how on earth did she get in? There was no logical explanation. As I was persuading her that the lawn was not the best place for breakfast, my phone rang. It was John to say that he had a phone call from the agister saying there were two chestnut mares on our road the wrong side of the forest grid. Could they be ours? John was adamant that even if there was a slight possibility that one was ours (and that was unlikely) the other couldn’t possibly be because we turned her out the other side of Brockenhurst on Sunday afternoon. I explained about finding Romany and said I would just make sure the other mare was nothing to do with us.
To my utter disbelief there was Gingernut waiting at our Forest boundary for somebody to let her in. A conservative estimate of the distance across the Forest from Black Knoll to our farm is ten miles. In order to find an underpass under the A35 road, which is completely fenced and bisects the Forest between Brockenhurst and us, the first part of her journey was actually, away from home. Even having negotiated the underpass she must have continued her journey via Burley Lawn (not the most direct route), collected her sister and together they headed for home. It was not only that Gingernut found her way but the speed at which she did it.
Apparently, an early morning motorist had found them both the wrong side of the New Forest cattle grid on our road. They very kindly opened the gate by the grid so they could return to the Forest. Both mares declined the offer and walked back over the grid. The motorist drove them away from the grid so that hopefully they wouldn't’t repeat the exercise and informed the agister. They were obviously very determined as they came back to the grid and Romany not only walked the road grid but also the one at the top of our drive and arrived on the lawn in time for breakfast.
The whole episode leaves me absolutely stunned and full of unanswerable questions. How do they know where home is? How do they navigate? What was the motivation? Among many more. It also shows that our forest ponies are able to think in a way that is totally beyond my understanding.
It does teach me two things. The first is the extremely strong bond between members of a herd. How did they find each other? How many ponies did they pass on their way but didn't link up with? No other ponies came with them.
Most of all it leaves me with a huge lump in my throat because they showed very clearly that the one place those two mares most wanted to be, was here at the Hollybrooke stud.